March 21, 2016: Ericsson has deployed world's first underground site for Small cells in Switzerland, for Swisscom. The site uses Ericsson's vault Remote radio unit and in-ground microcell antenna system, put inside the underground vault/ Man holes where optical fiber is already available. Due to reuse of existing assets and underground space, the total cost of ownership (TCO) will be reduced by 50 percent. This innovation will help the network to handle thousands of Gigabits of data in LTE, offloading the existing macro cells. It is known to be extended to 250 new sites, enabling more seamless data connections on the go. As Ericsson tells, this sort of solution will also be useful while rolling out 5G.
While Nepal is facing huge setback in the improvement/ up-gradation of Mobile networks in cities due to unwillingness of house-owner to rent their buildings be it for Earthquake torn sites or new Roll-out sites, can we use some technology near to this solution?. The question arises whenever there is discussion among the operators, regulator and the building owners. As the vault sites provides coverage and capacity that of small cells, it is only limited to the roads and the vicinity. The vaults that will be used is also not available throughout the city areas, hinders the usability of this solution for the unplanned habitants whereas combination of pole sites with this underground vaults may be feasible for providing mobile networks to the people. Lets wait for another innovation to reach us or bring the innovation that is ideal for our environment, for now I keep figuring what could it be.
